Search This Blog

Monday, 23 March 2015

LESBIAN AND GAY MURDERS IN SWAZILAND

The
separate murders of a lesbian woman and a gay man in Nhlangano, Swaziland, have
drawn attention to the prejudice faced by homosexuals in the kingdom.

On 15
March 2015, Kaylo Glover, aged 26, was killed with an axe by a man in a bar
because she was lesbian, the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
intersex) group Iranti-org reported. A few months earlier a gay man
known as Themba was also murdered in Nhlangano.

Jabu Pereira, the director of Iranti-org,
which documents human-rights violations and advocates for the rights of
lesbians and transgender people in Africa, reported Glover was killed by an enraged man who
did not want to be in the presence of lesbians.

Pereira reported, ‘He left the bar, fetched an
axe from his car, returned and killed Kaylo. Kaylo was rushed to hospital and
her killers followed them to the hospital and chased her friends with [an] axe.

Kaylo’s friend ran as she heard one of the guys shout “let’s finish off these
dogs”. Neither the nurses nor the doctors could reach Kaylo in time, she bled
to death.’

Pereira
said, ‘It seems Kaylo’s death has broken the silence around hate crimes in
Swaziland. It is bringing attention to the poor human-rights situation in this
country, where the monarch is so incredibly rich and its citizens are poor and
where LGBTI persons live hidden, framed as “the other”.’

Swaziland has a poor history supporting LGBTI
rights. In November 2011, Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze, the Acting Minister of Justice
and Constitutional Affairs, said Swaziland would not give human rights to
gay people, because
they did not exist in the kingdom.

Gamedze
was responding to criticism of Swaziland by a United Nations working group on
human rights that said the kingdom should enact equality laws for LGBTI people.

Earlier,
Gamedze had lied to the United Nations when he said that gays and
lesbians in the kingdom had not asked for repressive laws to be overturned.

The
official summary of working party of the Universal Periodical Review of human
rights in Swaziland held on 4 October 2011 stated, ‘Mr Gamedze specifically
addressed the issues of same-sex relationships and the death penalty [two
separate issues]. He noted that while consensual same-sex relations are illegal
in Swaziland, the Government does not pursue prosecutions. He also claimed that
so far the LGBTI movement in Swaziland had not challenged these policies and
clarified that the Government would only look into these issues if and when
this happened.’

In fact, an organisation called HOOP (House of Our
Pride) had submitted a report to the same UN inquiry that
Gamedze was responding to. It listed a range of discriminations that LGBTI
people in Swaziland suffered, including in faith groups, at work and through
police harassment.

In a list
of recommendations to the government, HOOP included:

‘LGBTI
activities should be decriminalized and given due recognition in the society.

‘The
government of Swaziland should bring into place laws that protect LGBTI
people’s rights at workplaces, social, faith and community gatherings and also
protect their right to inherit their partner’s belonging, if willed to them on
their partner’s passing away. The above law should be strictly enforced and
culprits severely punished.’

In its report HOOP said, ‘It is a common scene for LGBTI
to be verbally insulted by by-passers in public places. [There is] defamatory
name calling and people yelling out to see a LGBTI person’s reproductive part
are some of the issues facing LGBTI in Swaziland.’

‘Faith
houses have been known to discriminate against LGBTI, advocating for the
alienation of LGBTI in the family and society, while maintaining that these LGBTI
are possessed by demons.’

In one of
the first reports of its kind detailing sexual orientation discrimination in
Swaziland, HOOP revealed, ‘LGBTI are hugely discriminated against in the
community, as they are not recognized at community meetings and their points
are often not minuted at these meetings nor are they allowed to take part in
community services.’

Police
often ridiculed LGBTI people if they report they have been victims of violent
crime, Hoop reported.

Local communities in Swaziland
also discriminate against LGBTI people. In October 2013, it was reported that
community police banished two men from Lubombo because they were gay.

The SwaziNewsreported at the time, ‘A meeting was convened where
the boys were called to explain their lifestyle. They confirmed that they were
gay and that is when they were ordered to immediately leave the area.’